Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The Navy in Franklin, Virginia

NAAS Franklin from the air

Several dozen aircraft including  F6F Hellcats and SB2C Helldivers

F6F Hellcat

Shown here are a series of photos of Naval Auxiliary Air Station (NAAS) Franklin, Virginia (about 40 miles west of Norfolk) during World War II.  Few things are more rooted in Virginia than U.S. naval aviation. In addition to Eugene Ely's first flight, all eleven ships of the Navy's current aircraft carrier fleet were built in Newport News, and five are homeported close by at Naval Station Norfolk. The planes that operate from these East Coast ships are local as well, with F-18 Hornets and Super Hornets from Virginia Beach's NAS Oceana and E-2 Hawkeyes and C-2 Greyhounds flying out of NAS Norfolk's Chambers Field.


Naval aircraft and their support ships and personnel have long been instrumental in national defense, from fighting in the skies over the Pacific in World War II to flying half of the fixed-wing sorties in Afghanistan today.While navies and ships have for centuries protected national shorelines and projected power abroad, naval aviation is relatively new. In the U.S., it began a hundred years ago in Virginia, on November 14, 1910, when a young pilot named Eugene Ely took off from a temporary wooden deck attached to the cruiser USS Birmingham. The partnerships the Navy has forged throughout these past one hundred years with Hampton Roads remain as important as ever and are no more evident than the Navy's current engagement with the City of Franklin and Isle of Wight county. The Navy is working together with the airport, elected officials and the community to reach a mutually beneficial arrangement that satisfies the Navy's training needs and provides benefits to the community and region.

The Navy's overarching requirements stem from the need to provide the most effective and realistic training possible to prepare our Aviators to support the Combatant Commander, and is anchored in improving aviation training capacity, fidelity and operational flexibility to support the Fleet Response Plan under all conditions. The Navy's proposed action for Franklin municipal Airport entails conducting Field Carrier Landing Practice (FCLP) for E-2/C-2 Fleet turbo-prop aircraft.

The Navy's presence in Franklin was an important one to the war effort back in the 1940s. The Acceptance and Delivery Unit (ADU) for Naval Air Center Hampton Roads was located at Monogram (in now what is Suffolk, VA) in 1943. Because Monogram's grass runways were unusable 35% of the time due to rain drainage, in January 1943 the Navy initially leased Franklin Municipal Airport, located in adjoining Isle of Wight County, and built the required infrastructure. The Navy commissioned the airfield NAAS Franklin on May 1943 and moved the ADU from Monogram shortly thereafter.

The ADU's mission at Franklin consisted of accepting new aircraft, maintaining a pool of spare aircraft, and transferring aircraft from that pool. Also aircraft that had been overhauled and repaired by Norfolk's Assembly and Repair Department were sent there, and like the new aircraft, were ferried to operational squadrons on awaiting aircraft carriers. During the course of NAAS Franklin's existence the station handled over 11,865 aircraft. By September 1945 over 500 aircraft were onboard the station at any one time. Four months later the Navy placed NAAS Franklin in caretaker status. NAAS Franklin initially had two 3000ft concrete runways. In 1945 the Navy lengthened the existing runways and added a new 4200ft runway, 09/27. In 1944 station personnel numbered seven officers and 86 enlisted personnel, while barracks accommodated up to 40 officers and 200 enlisted. The Navy returned the airfield to Franklin in a series of deeds in 1947 and 1948.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Thanksgiving at Sea



Posted here are two Thanksgiving Day menus from locally based warships during World War II.  The first two images are from the battleship USS New York (BB-34), which was serving as a gunnery training vessel in the Chesapeake Bay at the time. The second menu is from the hard working destroyer USS Livermore (DD-429), which was in dry dock at the time recovering from damage suffered during the invasion of southern France.  The destroyer also participated in the Anzio landings and escorted several convoys between Hampton Roads and North Africa.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Navy Heritage Lecture: "Norfolk, VA and Pearl Harbor Remembered"


The Hampton Roads Naval Museum is proud to offer lecture and programs centered around the history and heritage of the United States Navy in Hampton Roads, VA, America's "First Region."
December's Navy Heritage presentation will center around the 1941 Japanese raid on the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor and its importance to American history. HRNM Educator Stephen Hebert will discuss the socio-economic impact that the "day that will live in infamy" had on the homeport of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet.

The 45-minute presentation will begin at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, 7 December in the Jamestown Exposition room inside the Hampton Roads Naval Museum. Admission for the museum is free.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

La Belle Chocolatiѐre

Chas. W. Shonk Manufacturing & Lithograph Company (Chicago, Illinois, 1890-1935)
La Belle Chocolatiѐre
Lithograph on Tin
One might not expect to find a fine example of Victorian era advertising in its naval collection, but this original tin lithograph which is part of the Hampton Roads Naval Museum’s collection gives a fascinating glimpse into our unique Naval Station Norfolk history. La Belle Chocolatiѐre is believed to have come from the “Chocolate House”, one of the original houses built as part of the 1907 Jamestown Exposition. During the exposition, the house featured exhibits of the Walter Baker & Company, Limited, a manufacturer of chocolate and cocoa. The framed tin sign, found in the attic of the house, has a plaque attached that reads, " 'La Belle Chocolatiere' famous trademark of Walker Baker Chocolate Company presented to Commander, Atlantic Division, Naval Facilities Engineering Command."

The image of La Belle was taken from a pastel on parchment painting by the Swiss Artist Jean-Étienne Liotard (1702-1789). It was painted between 1743 and 1745, and hangs in the Gallery ‘Alte Meister’ in Dresden, Germany. Its use as the Company’s trademark came from Henry Pierce, the firm’s fifth owner, who saw the original painting during a European trip in the late 1870s. He was so enamored with the image that he commissioned a large-scale replica painted for display at his offices in Dorchester, Massachusetts. The image was first used on packaging and advertisements in 1877, and became the official trademark of the company in 1883.

One of the more interesting facts about the artwork is the story behind the lady in the painting. Her true identity has never been confirmed. Legend has it that the lady in the painting was Anna Baltauf, daughter of a destitute knight and possibly a ladies’ maiden at the Viennese court. Prince von Dietrichstein sees her, falls in love and marries her against the wishes of the nobility. Another version is that Prince von Dietrichstein meets Anna Baltauf in a Viennese chocolate shop where she works as a shop girl. He falls in love with her and marries her “against strong objections from the nobility”. As a wedding present the prince hires Liotard to paint his bride as he had first seen her.

It is confirmed that during the period in which the painting was completed, Liotard stayed in Vienna at the court of the Austrian Empress Maria Theresia painting portraits of the Empress and her husband. Therefore, it is more than likely that the model was one of the young ladies at the Viennese Court. Nevertheless, the story was so intriguing that The Walter Baker Company printed its own version in the company’s recipe booklet in 1913. The image of “the beautiful chocolate girl” which has appeared on millions of cocoa tins and advertisements, and its romantic tale have become immortal.

Was the unframed tin sign part of the original exhibit in 1907? Was it found, then framed and presented to the Commander? Or was the tin sign found elsewhere, framed and presented to the Commander? How many tin signs of La Belle were originally made by Chas . W. Shonk Manufacturing & Lithograph Company? The quest to find information on this unique artifact turned up many facts however, many more questions remain unanswered.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Veterans' Day at HRNM


In honor of Veteran's Day, the museum's education staff provided art supplies for the visiting public to write thank you cards.   The cards will be sent to the Hampton VA Medical Center in Hampton, Virginia.


The education staff also provided sticky notes and a blank board.  They asked veterans to write down why they chose to serve and place their answer on the board.  Go to our Facebook photo album to see some of their responses.